The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of Petunia plant, which originated from the crossing of a Petunia hybrid variety called ‘152-3’ (unpatented) as the female parent and a seedling called ‘Summer Sun’ (unpatented) as the male parent.
The Petunia is a very popular plant that is used for flower bedding and potting in the summer season. There are only a few Petunia varieties that do not have an upright growth habit and that have a high resistance to rain, heat, and disease. Petunias of the ‘Revolution’ series include ‘Revolution Purple pink’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 6,915), ‘Revolution Brilliant pink’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 6,914), ‘Revolution Brilliantpink-Mini’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 6,899), and ‘Revolution Blue vein’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 9,322). These are decumbent type plants having long stems, a lower plant height, abundant branching, and a high resistance to heat, rain and disease. Likewise, there are only a few Petunia varieties having a great profusion of small size flowers, yellow colored flower petals and a high resistance to rain, heat, and diseases. Accordingly, this invention was aimed at obtaining a new Petunia variety having yellow colored petals, together with the above features.
Progress
The female parent ‘152-3’ used in the crossing of ‘Sunpatiki’ is a strain of our breeding lines, having a spreading growth habit with many branches. It has very small single flowers, the petals having yellowish white color.
The male parent ‘Summer Sun’ used in the crossing of ‘SunPatiki’ is a cultivar having an erect growth habit with very few branches, and thick stems. It has large vivid yellow flowers. The seed of ‘Summer Sun’ is commercially available.
In January 2000, crossing of ‘152-3’ as the female parent and ‘Summer Sun’ as the pollen parent was conducted at Yokaichi-shi, Shiga-ken, Japan. In May 2000, 60 seedlings were obtained from that crossing. These seedlings were grown in pots in glasshouses and were evaluated. One seedling was selected in view of its growth habit, flower size and color in September 2000. That seedling was propagated by cutting and a trial was carried out by flower potting and bedding from April to September 2001 at Yokaichi-shi, Shiga-ken, Japan. The botanical characteristics of that plant were then examined, using similar varieties ‘Sunpatire’ (U.S. Ser. No. 10/611,359) and ‘Fantasy Crystal Red’ (unpatented) for comparison. As a result, it was concluded that this Petunia plant is distinguishable from any other variety whose existence is known to us, and is uniform and stable in its characteristics. The new variety of Petunia plant was named ‘Sunpatiki’.
In the following description, the color-coding is in accordance with the Horticultural Colour Chart of The Royal Horticultural Society, London, England (R.H.S. Colour Chart).